The residents were fed up with the way the village’s name was being used in English.
A name is an incredibly important part of a person or place’s identity. Sometimes they even have personal, cultural, family and historical ties. There are places named after a river, or mountain, or even a temple. But in Austria, a village suffered decades of embarrassment because of its name. And the proliferation of the internet and social media made things even worse for F***ing, which renamed itself Fugging. This decision was made in 2021, after years of constant ridicule.
According to an old report in The guardFugging is located 260 km west of the Austrian capital Vienna. With the rise of travel influencers, especially from English-speaking countries, this popular stop for tourists began to be seen in a negative light. These travel bloggers took photos of themselves at the signposts at the entrance and exit of the village with the word F***ing and posted them on social media. Dozens of signposts were stolen, forcing local authorities to hang them at a height of 2 meters and embed them in theft-resistant concrete when they were replaced.
The villagers were called “F***ingers”, which further insulted the already wounded pride of the locals. They became the butt of jokes on social media, leading to the decision to change the name of the place.
Fugging is part of the municipality of Tarsdorf, north of Salzburg and close to the German border.
The village, officially inhabited around 1070, was probably named after a local nobleman named Adalpert von Vuckingen, although local tradition suggests that a sixth-century Bavarian aristocrat named Focko actually founded the settlement, said The guard report.
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